response 1 of 34:

Jan 10 04:36 UTC 1994

For any who don't know, gopher is an Internet navigation tool, designed to
provide easy access to a wide variety of Internet resources through a
text-based menu-driven interface.  Users choose items from menus, and the
Gopher software takes care of the details of transferring control to the
appropriate host that contains the requested resource.  In theory, the feel
is of one interconnected set of resources.

response 3 of 34:

Jan 15 22:57 UTC 1994

(Technically, one telnets to a gopher client, which in turn telnets to
a gopher server.)

response 5 of 34:

Jan 16 07:24 UTC 1994

You don't need to telnet to MichNet (Which Host?) to telnet to msu-gopher.
You can just call up with simple serial. This is what remmers is
referring to, except that that first step can be either a Serial or
Telnet connection. Telnet uses a packet network - you are not connected
directly to another machine - your computer generates addressed packets
that find their way there. That's why you can have several "connections"
(packet addresses) simultaneously. 

response 7 of 34:

Jan 16 12:48 UTC 1994

Rane, part of the reason that I call MichNet (instead of telnetting) is
that sometimes I'll be on the system for hours at a time.  Since Grex
has a limited number of modems, and MichNet is available for free, it
makes sense to me not to tie up Grex lines.

response 9 of 34:

Jan 16 22:06 UTC 1994

Carl, I agree with you. I would always recommend the direct (serial)
dialin to MichNet for anything for which authentication is not needed.
In #5 I was expanding on remmers' #3, to say one doesn't need to *telnet*
to the gopher. There is a big difference in response, since local clients
are usually pretty slow compared to what the Internet can do. This is
petty noticeable even though I call MichNet on 998-1304.

response 11 of 34:

Apr 22 13:32 UTC 1994

I recently connected to grex by an interesting route. I started with the
gopher client TurboGopher 1.0.8b4, which got me the Home Gopher Server at
UM, via MacPPP and the NAS. The pages from there are: 

Home Gopher S./Other Gopher and Internet S./North America/USA/
michigan/Michigan State Univ/Network and Database../Internet Resources/
Gopher-Jewels/Free-Net and../Free-Net Systems/Grex FREE-NET/Login as
Newuser? OK/grex login: 

I tried this to see if a gopher client would eventually yield telnet
connections, and the answer is yes. The interface is somewhat friendlier
than a direct telnet first to msu-gopher: for one thing, no menu numbers -
just "folder" menus, and apparently a lot more levels. 

A drawback is that the window is tiny - like looking through the wrong end
of a telescope - which isn't so far from the truth. I guess the packet get
tired, turning all those pages. The interface is also NCSA Telnet, which
TurboGopher launched at some point. 

This wasn't a practical maneuver, of course: I had to have authentication
for MichNet to use the client on it, and I could have telnetted directly
to grex, rather than go around the barn. However it does provide a
useful "white pages", for hunting.

response 13 of 34:

Oct 26 13:49 UTC 1994

Same reasons junk like that builds up elsewhere.  Time, progress, and
other changes have made some information obsolete (like that phone
book from two years ago), and no one has bothered to clean up the mess.
I suppose the system can tolerate a certain amount of useless crap
before it becomes annoyingly unuseable.  If you have an e-mail address
to the person maintaining that information, you could let them know.
Although if their incoming folder looks like that page...

response 15 of 34:

Oct 26 16:57 UTC 1994

No problem, as long as that night lasts for several years...  >8)

What would be nicer is if the search programs kept better track
of which items are still there and which aren't.  I don't mind
getting a hundred articles which aren't what I'm looking for,
or don't have anything to do with it but just happen to have
that string within their text (ask me how many of those I ran
into when searching for "pagan"), but pointers to no-longer-existing
items really bug me.

response 17 of 34:

Oct 26 22:46 UTC 1994

One funny part of it is that there will be a dozen items on the same
page, all with the same name and contents. They must also breed.

response 19 of 34:

Oct 27 06:48 UTC 1994

That makes sense, as I was running a veronica search, not just looking
at a gopher page. (But I don't know how veronica works in that respect.)

response 21 of 34:

Dec 16 04:52 UTC 1994

I seem to remember hearing about something called the Dorsai or something
like that a while back.  I've got some info somewhere, and I remember they
were based in NY.  They offered free Internet access if I remember
correctly.  I don't know if they're state-wide, but I'll look through what
I have.

response 23 of 34:

Dec 16 22:22 UTC 1994

Their address is dorsai.dorsai.org, if that helps.  (I don't
know much about them myself.)